iOS File System Access the Cause of iDOS App Removal?

Yesterday we reported on a cool app called iDOS, a universal emulator that allowed you to run all kinds of elder technology on your iOS device, was pulled from the App Store less than 24 hours after its auspicious debut. Turns out there may have been a valid reason for Apple to pull it -- and it doesn’t involve its emulation powers.

9to5Mac is reporting that the late, lamented iDOS app has superpowers that go beyond mere mortal apps. In addition to its Retina Display-enhanced emulation abilities that allowed you to run everything from DOS files to Windows 3.0 on your iOS device, it turns out the app also permits access to the entire iOS file system -- without having to jailbreak.

According to instructions posted on Gumball Tech, all you have to do is run a few commands within iDOS to mount the root directory as a virtual drive D:, then change directory to that location and wha-la! You can see everything listed there. It’s as simple as typing “mount D /“ and then “D:” followed by “dir” and you’ll get a screen similar to the one above. Once inside, you can use the “copy” command to copy whatever you’d like into the Documents directory of your virtual drive C: in iDOS.

Of course, accessing the iOS file system directly is a big no-no, so we’re not surprised that Apple gave iDOS the boot -- even if iDOS is limited to only read access, which means you can’t really screw up your device, even if you wanted to.

If this indeed the reason why iDOS was pulled, perhaps the developer can close this loophole and the app may yet find its way back to the App Store for all to enjoy. After all, this is the new, less restrictive Apple… right?